Col. Wayne Shanks says they had concrete intelligence that a Taliban sub-commander was in the housing compound at the time and was planning an imminent attack on a U.S. base. "It was an urgent need for us to go in and stop the attack to prevent casualties on our side but also innocent casualties," he said.

Ehassamudion Kushkaki says troops made a mistake targeting his house and killing nine people.

Resident Ehassamudion Kushkaki tells CNN the U.S. military did not announce their arrival at 1a.m. local time while everyone was sleeping, so two of the nine killed were shooting, thinking they were being attacked by thieves. The U.S. military insists it announced its arrival and says all of those killed were shooting at the forces.

Kushkaki says he was detained and asked about his gardener – who was killed in the attack and who the military said was the wanted Taliban member. Kushkaki tells CNN, "Their information was wrong, he came to work here as a gardener when he was 7 years old. He's been working for us for 17 years. In all that time, I never saw him with the Taliban or with a rocket."

After four days, Kushkaki says, he himself was released without charge which he says proves his innocence and the military's mistake.

Thousands of miles away in London, Fatima Ayub has been campaigning for night raids to stop and offering help to bereaved families. Ayub works for the Open Society Institute, a private human rights organization.

Nasrutullah Arsala says these cases widen the gap between the people and the government.

This time the attack is too close to home - those targeted were members of her extended family. "I'm in a unique position having been affected by this personally, but also working on it professionally, but at the end of the day I think we, along with every other Afghan family who's affected like this, wants an answer."

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan has sought to minimize the use of night raids, noting past public anger, but Ayub says it's not enough.

She says it is very hard for families like hers to get information from the international forces.

"Families have no idea what's happened," Ayub said. "A lot of times these raids are premised on faulty evidence so someone will give a time to the international forces that "hey, there's an insurgent in this house," a raid will happen, it'll have tragic consequences and then there is just a dead silence."

Nasrutullah Arsala, head of Nangarhar provincial council, tells CNN, "There's no doubt that when these cases happen, the people rise up and the gap between the government and people widens."

The U.S. says they found weapons at the house; the family says they had licenses for them. The U.S. military says they also found part of a rocket launcher, but Kushkaki insists the incident has been a case of mistaken identity.

soundoff(8 Responses)

I believe 1 of your ads triggered my web browser to resize, you might want to put that on your blacklist. Civilians or fighters? Debate lingers over deaths at housing compound – Afghanistan Crossroads – CNN.com Blogs is a cool name for a blog BTW 😉

LET ALLAH SORT OUT ALL THESE CRYBABIES.
MY EX-WIFE WAS A CHILD IN DRESDEN, GERMANY WHEN IT WAS FIRE BOMBED BY THE RAF.
30,000 PEOPLE IN DRESDEN ROASTED TO DEATH IN THE FIRST 10 MINUTES OF THE BOMBING.
THE 911 ATTACKERS ARE THESE MUSLIMS' HEROS. DON'T DOUBT THAT.
AFGHANS – YOU DON'T WANT YOU'RE CHILDREN TO DIE?
YOU ALL NEED TO DO IS GET TOGETHER AND TURN IN YOUR MESSENGER OF ALLAH OSSAMA BIN LADEN.

Commanders of Allied Forces have no idea on, How to go about raiding houses at night time.These Commanders must be given training in the basics military tactics of night raids and Inter-Cultural Training. It is very unfortunate that these Officers brought up in USA and their respective countries have no idea at all about the behavior and cultural aspects of people like Afghans etc. That`s why their troops go about doing military operations without any clue or proper brief.
These forces will never succeed in their goal here, if they continue in the present manner. JAI HO

Soldiers filled with anti-depressants and prescription Ambian to knock them out instead of having natural sleep cycles are bound to see Taliban faces in the windows, doorways, walking the streets and driving by instead of distinguishing them accurately as merely Afghanistan civilians. It is entirely expected for soldiers patrolling with machine guns and body's with raised amounts of Ambian sleeping agent in their blood stream to make serious mistakes in determining 'friend or foe' and open up with a full clip on Afghanistan civilians.

It is not US Army's fault that civilians dies, the enemy hides among the civilian population, I believe we should start debating when we reach civilian deaths of over 500,000 in a year. That should be the US limit, if we go over our limit then we need to re think our strategy. These people kill one another any how, I doubt even the civilian population in Afghanistan is innocent.

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Afghanistan Crossroads is where CNN's reporting converges -- bringing you a diversity of voices, stunning images and video, global perspectives and the latest news from on the ground in Afghanistan and around the world.